city budget

On this episode of Labor Justice Radio:

+SEIU members fight for fair treatment in Delaware

+Philly responds to city budget cuts

+Queer immigrants talk about repression and resistance

+Day laborers speak about their right to work

+Music and local news

Mayor Nutter is offering regressive taxes as a solution to the city budget deficit, showing just how limited a vision our elected leaders have for addressing this economic crisis. 

On the eve of Mayor Nutter's budget speech, Kristin Campbell, an organizer with the Coalition to Save the Libraries, has a piece in Organizing Upgrade that reminds us what the city has learned from last year’s successful fight to keep the Nutter administration from closing 11 libraries. 

With next year's budget proposals underway we are already seeing the hatchet for slashing budgets that brought about fears of government stand still last year.

Philadelphia is faced with a budget deficit of upwards of $100 million for fiscal year 2011. Over the five years that the city has to plan for, it's looking at a $500 to $700 million shortfall. This is a significant chunk of change to add on to the $2.4 billion already cut in the city's five-year plan last round.

The issue here is not that there isn’t enough money.   The issue here is: who has the money, and who will be asked to pay?  We grow up being taught that we live in a representative democracy.  On the local level, every elected official has to build a base of support so that on election day, she or he will garner the most votes and win the election.  The broader and more diverse a politician’s base of support, the better, right?  Of course, we learn through experience that’s not the whole story.  Politicians need money to be able to run campaigns.  The

Philadelphia is in crisis. People across the city are feeling the effects of the global economic downturn and wondering what the future will bring for them and their families. The city has finally resolved a long, drawn out, and deeply unsettling budgeting process, and it feels now like the dust has finally settled. But even though massive service cuts and layoffs are off the table for now, this economic crisis is far from over, and we in Philadelphia now have a clear idea of the kinds of solutions our city government is willing to present.

The Essential Services Coalition held a press conferences presenting the cuts and tax increases  in the budget passed by the city council for FY 2010.

Above you will hear the concerns of our city's residents about a budget that raises sales taxes, cuts library hours, summer jobs for youth, and charges for care at city health centers. They state that this budget is being balanced on the backs of the city's workers, and with the well being of city's poor abandoned.

Siobhan Reardon, Director of the Free Library Administration, testified on Tuesday that Philadelphia' library system is downsizing its schedule even though demand for its essential services is skyrocketing during the recession.

Fishtown has over 20% unemployment, more people need our libraries than ever, and they are cutting our funding?said Andrew Christman, a Fishtown parent. Our local nursery school has had to cancel its children' programming at the library, even though new parents are our fastest growing group of library card users.”

Friday, Jonathan Stein from Community Legal Services and a past member of the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission got a letter to the editor published in the Philadelphia Inquirer calling for an end to Philadelphia's 10-year tax abatements for the "super-rich." The letter is reprinted below.

These are photos from the demo to help save health centers from potential budget cuts.